Complete Lunacy! US Mission in Afghanistan Now Nation Building And US Arms Pakistan with Latest F16’s

The issue is not Obama’s inconstancy; it is the dubious nature of the mission. And I don’t mean the “mission” implied by the Right’s rhetoric; I’m talking about the mission as it is conceived by the theater commander. In a lengthy essay for the magazine section of last Sunday’s New York Times, Dexter Filkins, who was granted extraordinary access to General McChrystal, states the matter succinctly:

What McChrystal is proposing is not a temporary, Iraq-style surge — a rapid influx of American troops followed by a withdrawal. McChrystal’s plan is a blueprint for an extensive American commitment to build a modern state in Afghanistan, where one has never existed, and to bring order to a place famous for the empires it has exhausted.

In other words, the mission is no longer to defeat the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan (and Pakistan), but it has morphed into another doomed nation building mission. This is not the mission of our military! Quite frankly, the mission of the military is to kill people and break things, as Rush Limbaugh so in-sightly put it. Period! To make matters worse, as Andrew McCarthy points out in his article, democracy and sharia are simply incompatible. Anyone who knows anything about Islam and sharia should realize this. He goes on to say:

The question, Obama’s top aide told the Sunday shows, is not “how many troops you send, but do you have a credible Afghan partner for this process that can provide the security and the type of services that the Afghan people need?” If we were in Afghanistan to destroy the Taliban and al-Qaeda, having “a credible Afghan partner” would be irrelevant — as it was in October 2001, when we first invaded. We only need a “partner” because our purpose is not victory. Our purpose is “this process” of ensuring Afghans’ security and government services — neither of which they have ever had; neither of which it ever ought to be thought our obligation to provide.

“This process” is the gargantuan burden of building, from scratch, an oxymoronic sharia-democracy in a backwards, corrupt, fundamentalist Islamic armpit. And as if we’d learned nothing from the ravages against us, the process absurdly assumes that Islam — rather than being a major part of the problem — is an asset that we can turn to our advantage. If such a process could work (it can’t), it would take decades, cost hundreds of billions of dollars, and cause an unknowable number of American casualties.

Quite frankly, if the futile effort of nation-building in an Islamist nation is our goal, then bring the troops home. Now. Stop putting their lives in danger for a hopeless, foolish cause that will never work, and that we can’t afford. I thought we learned our lesson in Viet Nam. You don’t send our troops to die in a battle that you don’t intend to win.

McChrystal’s missive was the first in an array he has drafted aimed at radically transforming the way America and its allies wage war here. In his first weeks on the job, McChrystal issued directives instructing his men on how to comport themselves with Afghans (“Think of how you would expect a foreign army to operate in your neighborhood, among your families and your children, and act accordingly”); how to fight (“Think of counterinsurgency as an argument to win the support of the people”); even how to drive (“in ways that respect the safety and well-being of the Afghan people”). At the heart of McChrystal’s strategy are three principles: protect the Afghan people, build an Afghan state and make friends with whomever you can, including insurgents.

Obviously, McChrystal is not familiar with the koran, in which is stated:

“Let not the believers take the unbelievers for friends rather than believers; and whoever does this, he shall have nothing of (the guardianship of) Allah, but you should guard yourselves against them, guarding carefully; and Allah makes you cautious of (retribution from) Himself; and to Allah is the eventual coming.” Koran 3:28

In the NYTimes article, there is a section that describes how some of our soldiers were almost killed by a roadside bomb that was set off by remote control by an Islamist observer in a nearby village. Our soldiers did virtually nothing to eliminate the person who committed this crime, because of fears of “civilian” casualties. Again, this shows a lack of understanding of the enemy, who does not really make much of a distinction between civilians and combatants when dealing with their enemies, such as Israel. In Islam, there is basically Dar al-Harb and Dar al-Islam, meaning, roughly, the enemy, and the Muslims. Muslims are commanded to fight until there is no Dar al-Harb, and Islam rules the world. Clearly McChrystal is not aware of this passage from the koran:

“But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, an seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practise regular charity, then open the way for them: for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.” koran 9.5

McCrystal further states:

“You can kill Taliban forever,” McChrystal said, “because they are not a finite number.”

That just goes to show the nature of the enemy. They intend to take over the world, and Islam tells them it is their duty to do so. But, it is not an infinite supply. If you kill enough of them, eventually they will either get some sense, or you will finally run out of the “true believers”.

But now, it gets even worse. In a recent press release, “Lockheed Martin Unveils First New F-16 for Pakistan in Ceremony Attended by Air Force Chiefs” ! Hey, why don’t we just give them some thermonuclear weapons, too? And maybe a nuclear submarine or two so that they can easily deliver their weapons to our doorstep, perhaps with a devastating EMP attack. (See my earlier article, “Washington Fiddles While USA (may be ready) To Burn“) After all, they only have little 15-25 kiloton weapons! Wouldn’t they feel much more secure and “proud” with some multi-megaton weapons? All I can say is that I hope the F-16 are equipped with remote controlled “kill switches” that we can use to shut down their engines when we have to go to war with them. (Which looks imminent, now that the Taliban (and thus al Qaeda) has almost succeeded in taken over Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. They probably will succeed in this effort in the near future, thus giving bin Laden a whole nuclear arsenal, complete with missiles for delivery.)

And, we not only continue to arm our very enemies, like Saudi Arabia, but we are giving Pakistan one of the best versions of the F-16 to boot! If we are going to insist in arming our enemies, why not give them something more sensible, like some Piper Cubs armed with pellet guns.

“Peace Drive is the flagship of modernization for Pakistan’s Air Force. It is the latest configuration of the best 4th generation multirole fighter available in the world today,” said John Larson, vice president of F-16 programs for Lockheed Martin.

The aircraft order is designated as “Peace Drive I,” continuing a long tradition of naming F-16 international sales programs with the word Peace. The program raises the total number of F-16s ordered by Pakistan to 54.

Obviously, in allowing Islamist nations like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to purchase our top line weapons, so that they can turn those weapons, at some point, against us, the leadership of this country clearly is not familiar with the following verse from the koran:

“Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies, of Allah and your enemies, and others besides, whom ye may not know, but whom Allah doth know. Whatever ye shall spend in the cause of Allah, shall be repaid unto you, and ye shall not be treated unjustly.” koran 8.60